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FERNANDO HENRIQUE CARDOSO RECEIVES 2003 J. WILLIAM FULBRIGHT PRIZE FOR INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING

Former Brazilian President Cardoso Recognized as Intellectual, Political Force in Advancing Human Rights and Development

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 30, 2003) – The Fulbright Association awarded the 2003 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding to Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former president of Brazil who consolidated his country’s democracy, curbed inflation there, and invested in health, education, and human development programs recognized by the United Nations as international models. Dr. Cardoso was honored in a ceremony at the U.S. Department of State

During Dr. Cardoso’s presidency from January 1995 to January 2003, he strengthened political institutions, increased economic stability and growth, and expanded educational opportunities for all Brazilians while promoting human rights and development. During his tenure, high school enrollments increased more than one third, and the number of students entering college doubled. Dr. Cardoso’s emphasis on improving health care in poor rural areas resulted in a 25 percent decrease in infant mortality. The United Nations Development Program recognized his work with the inaugural Mahbub ul Haq Award for Outstanding Contribution to Human Development. In 1986 he was selected as Fulbright Program 40th anniversary distinguished fellow and lectured at Columbia University on democracy in Brazil.

Dr. Cardoso currently chairs the Club of Madrid and the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on United Nations-Civil Society Relations and serves as co-chairman of the Inter-American Dialogue and as coordinator of the working group in charge of reviewing the process of Ibero-American Summits. He is also emeritus professor of political science at the University of São Paulo. His main works in English include Charting a New Course: The Politics of Globalization and Social Transformation (M. Font editor, 2001) and Dependency and Development in Latin America (with E. Faletto, 1979).

“Fernando Henrique Cardoso has dedicated his life to fostering peace, stability, and democratic ideals not only in Brazil, but around the world,” said Brown University President Ruth J. Simmons, chairwoman of the international selection committee for the 2003 J. William Fulbright Prize. “For his intellectual contributions to international development, for his lifetime commitment to justice and equity, and for the dramatic changes he achieved in Brazil, we are honored to award Fernando Henrique Cardoso the 2003 Fulbright Prize.”

Serving on the international committee convened by the Fulbright Association to select the 2003 Fulbright Prize laureate were Dr. R. Fenton-May, president of the Fulbright Association and retired director of operations development, The Coca-Cola Company; His Excellency Przemyslaw Grudzinski, ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the United States; the Honorable Lakshman Kadirgamar, member of Sri Lanka’s parliament, former minister of foreign affairs, and senior adviser on foreign affairs to the President of Sri Lanka; and His Excellency O. Faruk Logolu, ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to the United States. Ruth Simmons, selection committee chairwoman, and the members of the 2003 committee are all Fulbright alumni.

Fulbright Association President Dr. R. Fenton-May said, “Dr. Cardoso has demonstrated an abiding concern about inequality and obstacles to human development. As an example, his dedication to creatively tackling social and health problems resulted in a 64 percent reduction in AIDS-related deaths in Brazil. His novel program has been recognized as a model for the rest of the world by the World Health Organization.”

The J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding carries a $50,000 award provided by The Coca-Cola Foundation. The Fulbright Association created the Fulbright Prize in 1993 with a grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation to recognize individuals who have made extraordinary contributions toward bringing peoples, cultures, or nations to greater understanding of others. Previous recipients of the award are former South African President Nelson Mandela, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, former Austrian Federal Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, former Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino, former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, former Chilean President Patricio Aylwin Azócar, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, former president of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata.

In addition to Dr. Cardoso and former First Lady Ruth Cardoso, other distinguished Brazilian Fulbright alumni are Celso Lafer (twice minister of foreign affairs), Justices Ellen Gracie and Joaquim Barbosa, leading economist Clarice Messer, and actor/director Paulo Betti. The binational Fulbright Commission in Brazil (www.fulbright.org.br), created in 1957, has provided some 2,200 grants to Americans and 2,600 grants to Brazilians. The Brazilian academic community deems the Fulbright program to have fostered the development of graduate studies in Brazil. Many U.S. scholars see it as critical to the building of Brazilian studies faculties in the United States.

The Fulbright Association is a private, non-profit organization that supports and promotes the Fulbright Program, an international educational and cultural exchange initiative created in 1946 by legislation sponsored by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. There are Fulbright exchanges between the United States and more than 140 other countries. There are more than 200,000 Fulbright alumni throughout the world.

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Biographical Data on Dr. Cardoso

A sociologist trained at the University of São Paulo, Dr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso emerged in the late 1960s as an influential intellectual, analyzing large-scale social change, international development, dependency, democracy, and state reform. He became deeply involved in Brazil’s struggle to overcome the authoritarian military regime in power from 1964 to 1985. In the late 1960s he was arrested and interrogated by military intelligence agents, and his research institute was bombed by terrorists. To escape persecution by the military, he spent the 1970s and early 1980s teaching in the United States, France, and Chile. He was elected senator in 1982 as a proponent of democratic reform and served as a founding member of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB). Before his election as president, he served as minister of foreign relations in 1992-1993 and as minister of finance in 1993-1994. He has received honorary doctorates from universities in Chile, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. Dr. Cardoso is also foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding

Nomination form for the 2004 Fulbright Prize